BURN Fitness 101: A Tale of Two Mother-In-Laws…You Choose. I have a client that I’ve worked with for close to three years now.At first, I went to her home and trained her there.After I opened the first BURN Fitness at the west end of Central Ave, I asked her if she’d make the drive two days per week to me, as I was getting too busy to do in-home training any more.Begrudgingly, she decided to try it for a few weeks.Now almost three years later, she drives to the new BURN twice per week, every week, even after moving up to Seminole. So what’s the big deal??Well, this client I love dearly is now 82 years old.She drives half an hour each way to exercise with me at BURN twice per week, at 7:30am…She’s a rock-star. So what is this “Two Mother-In-Laws” thing?Let’s get to that… Scenario one: We hear about it all the time… Mom was doing GREAT, up until her fall… then she went downhill fast.It’s a horrible, yet frequent story.Moms outlive dads.They just do quite often.After dad is gone, mom is doing fine thankfully.She still lives quite independently, still drives everywhere, social butterfly going to friends for lunch, playing cards, taking a cruise with friends… living a great life considering. Then… the fall…

You see, as we age, more often than not we slowly but steadily lose strength.Body-fat replaces muscle as activity levels drop.The loss of muscle amplifies small losses in agility and balance.Where back in your 40s and even 50s, a slight slip, or little trip over a crack in the sidewalk results in an embarrassing stumble, but you catch yourself.The reaction time is still there, and you have enough strength in your legs that when you DO occasionally stumble, you can catch yourself with one leg, and recover… no harm done.Then time and inactivity take their toll… the reaction time slows, and even if you CAN get a leg out there and under your center of gravity to catch yourself, there’s not enough strength to stop your momentum.The knee buckles, possibly even tearing a ligament… and down you go.The inactivity has led to not only a loss of muscle strength, but also a corresponding loss of bone density.Without the leg strength to catch yourself, you’re going down.The hands instinctively reach forward to slow your crash.But when the first hand hits, there’s no arm strength, and no bone strength.Crack… broken wrist.That broken wrist didn’t slow your fall much either, so to avoid going face-first, the body instinctively twists, taking the blow right squarely on your… hip.And with no bone density… that breaks too.

Four weeks later… the hip has still not healed due to the lack of a strong enough skeletal base.The wrist is healing, but will never be the same.It will be forever sore, and the grip is weaker.The torn ligaments have been repaired, or more likely left alone, since the risk of surgery is way too high.Mom is now going to spend the next six months in a wheel chair. Mom never gets out of the wheel chair…The physical toll of the fall is too much.The loss of mobility mean she can no longer drive, dance, get in and out of the shower, or cook for herself.Assisted living becomes the only option (or moving her in with you…).Assisted living costs thousands of dollars per week.Insurance covers much of it, but any wealth mom had is quickly consumed in out-of-pocket costs and co-pays.She goes from bright and vibrant… to burden. It’s a horrible reality for WAY too many people.The story is repeated over and over again. BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO!!!! Scenario Two: You see… my wonderful client, age 82, took a nasty spill last week.She negotiated the curb just fine, but tripped over one of those damn parking lot concrete “stoppers”.But her fall story ended very differently… even at age 82! She got one leg out in front of herself with the agility of a very much younger woman.It didn’t completely stop her fall, but it slowed her down.The legs were strong enough, the knee held.She dropped to one knee, and scraped it pretty badly, her hand went down… and her wrist held just fine.She rolled down to an elbow on the concrete.Another nasty scrape… then the hip hit.Bruised!Nice a purple, and a little tender. THEN SHE STOOD BACK UP!She walked gingerly back to her apartment, cleaned up her scrapes, and cancelled her two weekly workouts at BURN Fitness.She spent the week healing, hanging out with her kids and grandchildren, hosting a few meals at her house, where she “helped” with the cooking. Eight days later… she was back at BURN, working out for her first of two trips… every week.Her hip and knee where still a bit tender so on Tuesday we just worked her upper body.Today, Thursday, 10-days post-tumble… she did squats with dumbbells, calf raises, lunges with a TRX, balance work on a foam half-cylinder, and heel-to-toe walks “down the line”, forward and backward.She did step-ups, core work, and we stretched her out a bit more than normal.She’ll be back next week with a check.She’s due for another 12 sessions. Personal Training is expensive.Personal Training is hard…But in my humble opinion… it beats the alternative.